Lucas Leiva: Liverpool can land European place

Lucas believes Liverpool still have a realistic chance of securing European football at Anfield next season.

The Reds are currently five points off fifth-placed Arsenal and face tough fixtures against Tottenham, Chelsea and Everton during their remaining ten games of the season.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have been in fine form recently, though, and have picked up seven points from their last four Premier League matches.

And Brazilian midfielder Lucas claims a victory against Spurs on Sunday will continue their quest for Europe next season.

“Tottenham are doing really well this season and you can see they’ve won quite a few games in the last few minutes – these things show their confidence is very high,” he told Sport Magazine.

“We know the gap between us and European places is quite big now, but we just need to make sure that we play well.

“And, if we do that, we will have a big chance to win the game and move up the table. Unfortunately, we need teams to drop points now – but I think they will. And, of course, we need to make sure we drop less points than the others.”

Luis Suarez has been Liverpool’s main focal point in attack and has scored 28 goals in his 38 appearances for the Anfield club so far this season.

And Lucas added: “The reason why he’s so successful is his hunger to win all the time.

"He’s having a fantastic season and we just hope he keeps going and getting better and better. It’s difficult to imagine if he gets better, where he will be, but he is doing very well for us.”

You can read the full interview with Lucas Leiva in this week’s Sport Magazine. Available on Friday, or download the free Sport iPad app from the Apple Newsstand.